Charlize Theron At 42: 15 Of The Star's Most Foxy Photos

Aging is a natural process that most people in our world dread. After all, every new birthday just means you are a little bit closer to death, right?

Well, that was a rather grim way to start an article. How about we try this again?

It is a given that most people do not like the fact that they are getting old with each passing day. Still, there are those unique folks who not only make the most out of their natural aging process but also find a way to look better with each passing year. There are dozens of actresses and other celebrities who we could mention to prove that getting old doesn’t mean someone needs to look less attractive than they did a decade ago. The truth might just be the complete opposite, as we have examples of beautiful people who just seem to be getting hotter and hotter with each passing year.

The perfect example to illustrate this idea is one of our favorite big-screen blondes, Charlize Theron. This South African-American is, without a doubt, one of the most famous actresses of the past few decades. However, one thing that you might not realize is that she just turned 42 and somehow still looks as good, if not better than she did during what many people would call her “prime.”

Either way, you better get ready for a lot of Charlize Theron because to celebrate her recently completed 42 years of age, we decided to make a list of 15 of the hottest pictures of this actress ever to be released.

15 No Need For School

Via: nydailynews.com

Most people know Charlize Theron today as an Academy Award and Golden Globe Winner who has made a life for herself as one of the leading actresses of her generation. However, the majority of those people would be incredibly surprised if they found out that Theron’s childhood was very far from what someone would expect the childhood of a world-renowned actress to be.

Apparently, this South African star never even got to finish high school. It must not have been easy to grow up in rural South Africa back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but not finishing high school is still a fact that would surprise anyone who is accustomed to seeing this beautiful actress performing on the big screen. Either way, if education was not really an option for someone growing up like her, we are glad that Theron decided to move to Los Angeles in her late teens and try a hand at acting.

14 The "Bunny" Incident

Via: amazon.com

Playboy has always been a great way for young models to put themselves out there and jumpstart their careers. Charlize Theron was no exception. Still back in South Africa in 1994, she decided to try to use Playboy as a way to trampoline her career. The only problem was that to appear in the magazine as a Playmate, she had to go through an audition. The person behind that audition was the founding editor of the South African Playboy, Jeremy Gordin.

When that skinny blonde walked in with her mother, Gordin had no idea what he was about to witness. Since at the time Playboy always looked for women with “larger assets” than Theron’s, Gordin had to tell her that she was not a good fit for the magazine for that very reason. You better read his own words about what happened next:

“‘You think my breasts are too small, don’t you?’ she interrupted. And then, she whipped off her T-shirt, under which she wore no bra, and said, ‘You better have a better look. They’re sort of hidden under this shirt.’”

We don’t need to tell you that she got the job, right?

13 Another Early Gem

After that last little story about how Charlize Theron got her first modeling gig with Playboy, you might’ve connected the dots and realized that she is a woman who has no problem in showing the world what she looks like under her clothes. Actually, anyone who has seen the majority of her movies could come up with that conclusion because she lets her clothes hit the floor quite often, and that is not something any fan has ever complained about.

Still, her early work as a model has provided the world with quite a lot of gems of this beauty wearing nothing but the birthday suit she came into the world wearing. By the year 2000, Theron had already tallied a few solid acting roles, like the 1997 Taylor Hackford movie The Devil’s Advocate. However, those gigs did not sway her away from doing awesome photoshoots like this one she did for Talk Magazine.

12 GQ

via Amazon.com

Her photoshoot for Talk Magazine was entertaining, but it was the legendary December 2000 GQ cover that made us really realize that Charlize Theron could have been a supermodel if she wanted. Just think about it. The fact that she decided to go into acting rather than trying to stay and make it as a supermodel must have been a play of fate. Seriously, would any of you doubt she could cut it in the world of fashion?

No! This South African bombshell is and has been something out of this world ever since she was introduced into the fold and received celebrity status. The amount of beautiful blondes who walked the streets of Hollywood or graced catwalks of modeling shows around the globe is immeasurable. Still, it doesn’t matter in which of these worlds Charlize Theron had decided to pursue a career in. We are confident she would have attained worldwide fame either way.

11 The First Of Many

Via: toutlecine.com

You never forget your first time. And no, we don’t mean what you are probably thinking. We mean any first time in anything. The first time you scored a touchdown in flag football, the first goal you scored in a soccer game, or the first basket you hit in a competitive basketball game. Any first is important for a human being. For an actress, there are three firsts that they undoubtedly will remember for the rest of their lives. The first movie, the first award nomination, and the first award victory.

Let’s go halfway and approach Charlize Theron’s first award nomination here. Do you remember for which movie that was?

If you thought about Mighty Joe Young, you were right on the dot. The 1998 adventure that she starred next to Bill Paxton earned Theron her first award nomination for best supporting actress for the Saturn Awards. And just taking a look at how beautiful she looked during the movie, we can’t help but feel sad that she didn’t take home the trophy.

10 The Best First

Via: nydailynews.com

Getting nominated for an award the first time has to be an exciting moment for a young actress. But nothing in the life of somebody who works with movies and television could ever be more exhilarating than winning an Academy award. Charlize Theron is one of those people who got to win her first statuette at a very young age, as she was not even 30 when she won the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her fantastic acting job in the 2004 movie Monster.

And anyone who would dare say that statuette was not deserved better have some solid arguments to back up their blasphemous claim. There have seldom been characters that must’ve been as tough to portray as the former prostitute-turned-serial-killer Aileen Wuornos. We have to admit that her character was not the most attractive of women. But enduring what the makeup artists did to Charlize’s beautiful face turned out to be worth it once we got to see her on the red carpet afterward.

9 Aeon Flux

Via: imgur.com

Charlize Theron has portrayed all kinds of characters. From the emotional roller coaster that was Aileen Wuornos, who we just talked about, to the disturbed ghost writer in Young Adult and the superhero in Hancock, she has done it all.

Still, what the majority of her fans would agree is that Charlize is always at her best when she is portraying a bada*s character. And no character this actress has ever played on a big screen was as entertaining in terms of being a bada*s in action than Aeon Flux. That movie was just insane if you are a fan of science fiction and action. Theron played Aeon Flux to a fault, and the action scenes in the film were just out of this world, with many people claiming they were the best of Theron’s career. Not only that, but we also have to mention that the Aeon Flux suit has to be one of the hottest hero costumes we have ever seen.

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8 Young Adult

Via: cloudfront.net

Another Charlize Theron movie that certainly deserves a spot on this list, for the mere fact that she looked stunning in the motion picture even though she was portraying a disturbed writer, is Young Adult. This turned out to be yet another legendary performance by Theron, who easily solidified her place as one of the actresses in Hollywood most able to truthfully portray the widest array of emotions.

Her character is one that a lot of people might know in real life; someone who had huge plans for life but ended up not living up to many of them. This is a real-life trope more than a movie one if we think about it. And that mere fact might make it even harder for an actress to portray that role convincingly. Nevertheless, Theron pulled off a Golden Globe nominated performance. And also, she made fans drool every time they paused the movie in this exact scene.

7 Red Carpet

Via: latfusa.com

There are two reasons why we love to see Charlize Theron movies succeed in the box office. The first one is that we are sure any fan who watches a film this beautiful actress is in gets their money’s worth twofold by the time the credits roll up. The second reason why we love seeing Theron’s movies killing it in the box office is that we will unavoidably get another shot at seeing what new look she is going to pull off on the red carpet for whatever award she is going to be nominated for.

It doesn’t matter what year it is; every time Charlize Theron steps onto a red carpet for an award ceremony, fans start to drool. We don’t even know how she does it. Every time...every damn time, she looks stunning. To prove that, we need to look no further than how she looked earlier this year at the Academy Awards.

6 J’adore

Via: dior.com

There are a couple of places where movie actresses usually look better than on the big screen or at the red carpet. Those two places are magazine photoshoots and advertisements. And sincerely, we could not think of a better way to make money with a product than having Charlize Theron be the face of your brand.

In 2004, world-famous fashion designer John Galliano made that very choice and has never looked back. By that time, the face of his J’adore by the Christian Dior brand was the beautiful Estonian model Tiiu Kuik. However, once he decided to part ways with Kuik in 2004, he signed Theron to be the spokeswoman for his brand, and she has done one helluva job.

Just how many people do you think bought the products because this was the advertisement they saw in the first place? Yes, Charlize, we already have a bunch of perfumes at home, but since you are asking nicely, we will totally buy this J’adore.

5 Superhero

Via: fanpop.com

If decades and decades of superhero movies have taught us anything, it is that not every actor or actress can pull off portraying a super-powered being. Luckily, Charlize Theron is without a doubt someone who can pull that off. We had seen the crazy potential for this when she played the deadly spy in Aeon Flux, but it wasn’t until she played the role of Mary Embrey in Hancock that we saw she could also deal with the gift of being almighty powerful.

Mary is crazy strong and crazy awesome, as Theron perfectly portrays the opposite of Will Smith’s drunken superhero, John Hancock. It might not surprise you anymore, but we have to say that she nails every action and emotional scene in this movie and makes the relationship between Mary and Hancock seem so much more real and flawed. We also don’t have to mention that she looks drop-dead beautiful playing that soccer mom/heroine.

4 Mad Max

Via: pinterest.com

Bald-headed ladies with just one arm who live in a barren wasteland are not exactly the description people would expect for a hot character. But if someone could pull that off, it would be Charlize Theron. The South African star had to go through a massive transformation to portray the bada*s Imperator Furiosa in the 2015 instant classic Mad Max: Fury Road. Still, even though the movie producers and makeup artists did a great job in making it look like Theron had to live in that nightmare of a place counting on her fighting skill alone to survive, she still managed to look good while doing it.

Don’t get us wrong, Furiosa might just be one of the most terrifying women in the history of movies, but in her own way, she was beautiful. And a big part of that was because the woman playing her was Charlize. This turned out to prove that even within the harsh life of a dystopic society full of disturbing characters, we can still find beauty if we know where to look.

3 Ravenna

Via: theskinnystiletto.com

Open way for our favorite evil queen. So far, we have mentioned a bunch of times when Charlize Theron played characters that were heroes (with the exception of that prostitute who became a serial killer), so it is about time that we talk about the moment when she became the most beautiful evil queen in the history of the big screen. And yes, we are counting Angelina Jolie in Maleficent, so deal with it.

If you have kept up with us until this point, we are sure that you will agree with this claim.

But back to the subject, the movie Snow White and the Huntsman was probably set up so that Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth would take center stage and lead the way in the show. But we think otherwise. The real gem of that movie was Queen Ravenna. And even for those who might say that she was not the best character in the film, no one can deny that she was the hottest woman in that motion picture.

2 Single

Via: photosbikini.com

The only long-term relationship we ever heard of Charlize Theron being involved in was when she dated the Irish actor Stuart Townsend. Apparently, the two of them met all the way back in 2002 while they performed primary roles in the Luis Mandoki film Trapped, along with other stars like Kevin Bacon, Courtney Love, and Dakota Fanning. The project was massive, but the return on investment wasn’t that great, and the movie has an 18 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Either way, Theron and Townsend started dating after they met on set. The relationship lasted for almost a decade, but the two parted ways in 2010. And although we feel sorry for Stuart, because we know he lost quite the catch, Theron went on with her life and has adopted two children. Although rumors about her dating life have been floated around, nothing solid has been proved. But with looks like Theron’s, we cannot imagine her staying single for long unless she wants to.

1 Atomic Blonde

Via: collider.com

What better way to finish off this list celebrating Charlize’s 42nd birthday than with her latest project? In Atomic Blonde, our favorite South African actress portrayed the role of Lorraine Broughton, a top-notch MI6 field agent that specializes in beating up bad guys.

But while Lorraine might be a bada*s, after watching how this movie was actually filmed, we have to admit that Charlize might just be more of a bada*s than the character she played. As the people who work with her said, Theron is one of the few actresses who does her own stunts, and she is also part of the even fewer who could probably kick your a*s. Just take a look at these real mixed martial arts training and behind-the-scenes clips from the filming of the movie that show just how crazy her fighting skills are.

And that settles it. Charlize Theron is the ultimate celebrity triple threat. She can act, she can model, and she can kick some a*s.